Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947363#Comment_123947363

Give it a break, we all love the clean rivers,

I was around in the 80s, before bales, silage pits were put nearly up on top of rivers,

Open slurry pits, water flowed in one side and the efflulent came out the other gate.

Cattle spent the winter around the feeder with muck and shiite flowing down in to rivers.

One fella washing his car with suds is probably doing more harm than a mid sized farm nowadays.

We all have heard story's of town treatment centres leaking and opening the sludge gate in wet weather.

I see a forest near us 20 hectares of 90degree slope was clear felled this summer ( coillte doesn't have to worry about birds).

Where is all the muck and nutrients going for the winter?

roosterman71

Where is all the muck and nutrients going for the winter?

It's going to be recorded against agriculture anyway

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947571#Comment_123947571

2 wrongs and all that - I was around in the 80's too and fish kills enormously spiked in the latter part of that decade. On the back of such things some investments were make in slurry management etc. but as I pointed out the lack of enforcement of existing legislation is at the core of the current water quality crisis. Of course other issues like sewage treatment need more investment in certain catchments and to be fair to the EPA they don't shy away from that if your read the reports. The poor performance of certain Irish Water plants also comes under that but again lack of enforcement and paltry fines feed into the ongoing issues there too. The issue of Coillte and BNM operations is also highlighted by the EPA and NGO's like SWAN etc. which show peat silt from their drainage and harvesting operations is having a significant water quality impact in areas like the upper Shannon Catchement and upland areas of spruce forestry. Basically most of these issues have been well flagged for decades in this country now but sadly succesive government have only paid lip service to the matter with any minor improvements on individual sites forced by EU legislation or by local communities talking direct action themselves like the current groups set up to address the issues around Lough Carra in Mayo, Ladyisland lake in Wexford etc.

dairyedge2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947363#Comment_123947363

why don’t you be a good citizen and ring your local county council or department office reporting the cowboys who are bringing your profession industry down? Just be sure and tell them your name so someone local can give you a pat on the back sometime. See plenty of poster boys breaking the rules. Aren’t we all cowboys, **** literally.

Sami23

What are lads paying for Dairy Nuts at the moment ?

Paying €400 per ton here in 25kg bags for my Sucklers just to keep them producing and to prevent grass tetany before they are housed.

captain hadley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947841#Comment_123947841

330 for 16 % Roches feeds dairygold were 345 for 14% but that lot are always dearer

whelan2

About 100 euro per tonne less, bulk blown in to bin, 18%

jaymla627

Mike Brady having a hissyfit, reckoning ifac are miles out with a 43 cent break-even cost of production is gas, when one of his vetted tenants is probably looking at jail-time in one of the biggest and most disturbing animal cruelty cases in a longtime

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947718#Comment_123947718

The only reason for water quality issues is the population has nearly doubled and water treatment plants can't cope. Practically every town and village in the country has raw sewerage discharging into rivers and streams. The EPA have hinted to this at last.

GC4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947718#Comment_123947718

Was chatting a lad from the fisheries about that, he said they officially only started recording kills in 1970 and for the first nearly 15 years these records were willy nilly and random so mid 80s would essentially be the earliest trustable baseline.

mahoney_j

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947921#Comment_123947921

saw tgat ….away with the fairies ….

straight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947921#Comment_123947921

He was always a spoofer.

daiymann 5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947841#Comment_123947841

Why dont u just bolus them with two mag bolus plenty of lads doing it great job see lads messing with lick buckets ploughing fields now if theve big 300 to 400kg calves on them id give hay or meal like your doing

Sami23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123948444#Comment_123948444

Yeah calves still on them - will be housing most of them this weekend I'd say with the way the weather is.

crossbredking

Can you post a link to the article?what's it on?I never came across it

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123947946#Comment_123947946

The only reason?? - sewage is better treated than ever b4(there were few if any treatment plants up to the 60's, yet water quality was far higher then) some places need upgrading but claiming its the only issue is not credible🙄 EG.

Farmer Fined €8,000 in Prosecution Over Slurry Discharge in Cork River Catchment

Clearly you haven't bothered to read or don't understand EPA reports on this issue since they have always mentioned sewage along with intensive farming as the main issues within most river catchments suffering low water quality

If human population density was the only criteria for water quality then the likes of NI woudn't have one of the worst water quality stats in the UK

UK Office of Environmental Protection publishes damning report on Northern Ireland water quality

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950336#Comment_123950336

And we should take the word of someone who is posting here at 1.00 in the morning seriously.

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950552#Comment_123950552

I believe there was an old saying years ago “never trust a man that needs more than 6 hours sleep!”

I’d be on your side of the fence regarding the water quality issues but as someone who regularly posts here late at night I don’t think the timing of @Birdnuts post should make a difference. Some of us just don’t need as much sleep as others!

I could count on one hand the amount of times I’d be in bed before midnight in a year or the amount of nights I’d get 7 or more hours sleep. Generally it’d be bed between 1-1.30 and awake around 7. At silage time that could be down to 3-4 hours sleep a night.

dmakc

Agree. Dismissing the timing of posts is unneeded, every situation different

ginger22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950617#Comment_123950617

Ouch

straight

How's the monamore sale going? I can't see it online...

awaywithyou

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950935#Comment_123950935

100 calves be8ng sold... its on LSL and go to carnaross to view.. its starts at 11.30am

140 fresh calved heifers and Cows being sold too...

https://issuu.com/taaffeauctions/docs/monamore_dispersal_sale?fbclid=IwY2xjawNxe5xleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHs8Zutbk4SVjo0MAGtGy6VhJCY-eP45FHbTbJUjBCpcomaORRX5iWzNJZ9SR_aem_9-lrPI4onB8JW0fX6pqLVw

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950336#Comment_123950336

I agree with you on much of it, particularly that its not just focused on farmers, however I have serious concern over some of the EPA operations, which I felt were clearly identified at the teagasc water conference last week.

While sewage treatment plants are better then years ago, they still have the inherentbweakness of not being able to deal with storm surge and have no option but to discharge raw sewage direct as overflow.

There are also 550 housing estate developments nationally with NOBODY responsible or in charge of the sewage systems.

The urban population in the Blackwater (Cork) catchement area has risen by 268% since 1990.

Urban sewage is a far greater pressure than is admitted publicly and will remain a significant risk to the good name of agriculture until UE are properly financed.

The standout issue in our waterbodies is the estuaries. The legacy of centuries of nutrients being dumped down the river now compounded with any (no matter how minute) Nitrates causes issues.

It's obvious that nitrate losses from livestock catchement (including derogation heavy ones) is improving, with tillage and pig/poultry heavy ones still concerning.

Phosphorus as being listed by EPA as being both Ag and sewage related

But the obvious discrepancy in the MO between the EPA and teagasc and NZ scientists I would suggest is around the frequency of testing and the length of time that is considered required to get an accurate trend.

Paper given from NZ on the importance of just that and the different take you wpuld get from the same set of results, taken and the different time frequencies and length of time

The teagasc catchement programme as you know takes samples at 10 minute intervals presented over a 10 years period.

We had a NAP review foisted on us that insisted on a trend on a 2 year time period.

AAnd most concerning is the frequency at which the EPA sample and consider perfectly adequate

They just dont want to hear the frequency and time issue.

It was plainly shown that actions taken by farmers do not show in results in waterbodies for between 4 and 20 years.

Farmers are not being fairly assessed in the work they undertake, before further measures are introduced, and when this manifests in stocking rate reductions or reductions in income...that's not acceptable.

On the flip side...56% of farms failed County Council inspections in Cork. Main issues are, dirty water runoff from yards and inappropriate storage…management issues.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123951051#Comment_123951051

Very informative post - thanks.

Are any farm orgs making such coherent and detailed presentations to the EPA, DAFM, IFI, or everyone else who might listen?

What about briefings to journalists from RTE, Irish Times, Indo, etc.?

stanflt

Monamore sale is flying

Cows are avg 5000

Suck calves avg over 1500

Sacrolyte

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123950617#Comment_123950617

Thanks for that lad. I’m not the only one. My wife calls me the man who doesn’t sleep…

stanflt

the main number is cows and the a numbers are their calves

visatorro

Just shows ya milk price is only a number!

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123951425#Comment_123951425

If that's their last sale then it's a nice way to exit.

A farm of land or a few houses is available there now to put that money into.

visatorro

Wouldn't begrudge him. He's a nice man and a super herd of cows. Unfortunately I dont think they'd even get off the trailer here! Even for the sales he'll have in the spring I dont think milk price will have any bearing on the prices he'll get.

I went a little way on a couple of calves but found out im not remotely at the races!